Mexi-Shrimp Bowl with Garden Fresh Veg

(or, “What to do when you have tomatoes coming out your ears”)

This year, my friend Brittany let us plant a small garden in one of her raised beds. My main focus was tomatoes, since I’d never grown them on my own before (and I just straight up love tomatoes). I don’t know what I was expecting, but not that the plants would flourish so well that we’d have a giant bowl of tomatoes every week. Amazingly, they do and we do.

I’ve been trying to find little ways to add them into the dishes I cook. On Monday, I made up a random dish from an assortment of what we had in the fridge, and those extra ‘maters really made it sing! The recipe is below–apologies in advance, I completely forgot to take any pictures of it before I ate the whole thing (it was pretty delicious). Feel free to adjust as needed, since this is a pretty thrown-together recipe to begin with.

Mexi-Shrimp Bowl

Serves 2

• 1 Tbsp. butter or coconut oil
• 1 lb. peeled, deveined shrimp
• 1 tsp. blackened seasoning
• a can of black beans
• two ears of corn
• two handfuls of cherry or grape tomatoes (10-12)
• a handful of grated cheddar cheese

Heat the black beans in a small pot (you may want to drain some of the extra liquid from the can) over medium low heat. Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan, heat butter or coconut oil over medium heat. Rinse shrimp and pat dry. Sprinkle generously with blackened seasoning.  Add shrimp to pan, cook until pink. With a serrated knife, cut kernels from the ears of corn (it helps to cut over a bowl so it will catch all of the kernels). Add to the pan, along with the tomatoes.  Cook for two or three more minutes, until the shrimp is opaque and the tomatoes are just starting to soften. Remove from heat. Put a scoop of black beans in a bowl, top with shrimp/tomato/corn mixture and sprinkling of cheese. Garnish with cilantro or avocado slices.